Monday, November 17, 2008

Thanks, Bank Of America!

Went by Bank of America to deposit a check. They have a wonderful (for some bizarro-world definition of wonderful) new addition to their ATMs, at least around Austin. You used to place your checks into an envelope and then insert the envelope into a slot, after typing in the amount of the deposit.

Now, you just slide the checks individually into the slot without an envelope, and it is supposed to scan the amounts automatically.

At least, in theory.

Or, in my case, despite having a nice, non-crinkled-up check, you sit there impotently stabbing the slot with the piece of paper that it steadfastly refuses to accept.

You know how wonderful it is when you try to use a dollar bill (or three, if you are at a motel) to buy a soft drink from a machine, and it just doesn't work? Not the kind where it sucks in the bill, thinks about it, and then spits it back out - but the kind where the machine won't even think about sucking it in at all?

Yeah, it's wonderful like that.

I understand why they did this - no need to stock envelopes. But at least the envelope provided some heft, some thickness to aid the machine in grabbing the deposit. Not any more.

And I haven't even got to the scanning part. At least my check was printed on a printer - what's going to happen to all of the hand-written checks? Does the ATM display the amount it thinks it is? What if it doesn't match the amount you think it should be?